


The Devil

by sstarrymorningss



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Light Angst, Post Season 2 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 07:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14711538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sstarrymorningss/pseuds/sstarrymorningss
Summary: failure, lust, temptationHer eyes fluttered shut, pure exhaustion no match for her anxious thoughts and her protests for the darkness that clouded her mind and now her vision. She fought the weight of her eyelids and stuck her gaze to her window, willing Jughead to come through it. The slivers of light that had escaped from the sides of Archie’s blind had slipped through the windowpane and fell in soft lines across her bed spread. She reached out to touch them and the sinking feeling in her chest only fell deeper each time she tried to tap it between her fingers.Just another thing to add to her list of things she couldn’t do.





	The Devil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> This one's for Starry. Thanks for always sending me prompts when I ask for them, they are always challenging but incredibly rewarding when they're done. Thank you thank you thank you. I hope you like this as much as I do :*
> 
> As always, thanks to my lovely beta Jenna (@allskynostars) for putting up with me and to Sim (@wonderrful) who is basically my second beta and my bff. Love you both endlessly <3

**** “Jug .. can you … can you come over.” 

 

Her voice was shaky, words broken up by sharp breaths and unshed tears which had started trailing down her cheeks. 

 

“Betty … Betts, what’s up?” His voice came through her phone loud and clear and she tried to focus on the steady rhythm of his breathing which she could hear faintly over the rustling of a jacket and the slamming of a door. 

 

“I just … I just need you to come over.” She could hear the click of the clip on his helmet and focused on that instead of the clicking and thumping of the thoughts taking over her mind. She fell back onto her pillow and pulled the blankets up around her, pulling them as tight as she could so that nothing bad could sneak between the fabric of her jersey and her pink spotted duvet. “I just need you,” she all but whispered into the dark room, hoping that her voice was caught by the microphone and it would somehow help him to arrive in that instant. 

 

It didn’t work.

 

“I’ll be there in a few minutes Betty just … hold on, okay? I’ll be there soon.” She could hear the engine of his bike starting up and she knew that it was time to hang up but she couldn’t quite bring herself to push the round red button resting by her ear. 

 

“I’ll see you soon.” The line went dead as soon as she’d finished her sentence and she lay there for moment, phone still glued to her ear while her knuckles turned white from her grip. She had to hold on, in any way she could, and imagining that he was still holding onto his phone in the same way she was even though she knew it would be safely tucked away in the inside pocket of his sherpa jacket was making her breath flow just that tiniest bit slower. 

 

She finally let the phone fall from her grasp and slide down her face onto the mattress in front of her. It felt like hours had passed but from the time showing on her phone when the screen lit up with a notification she realised it had only been two minutes. She curled further into herself, bringing her knees into her chest and grabbing fistfuls of covers to stop her nails from doing any more damage. 

 

Her eyes fluttered shut, pure exhaustion no match for her anxious thoughts and her protests for the darkness that clouded her mind and now her vision. She fought the weight of her eyelids and stuck her gaze to her window, willing Jughead to come through it. The slivers of light that had escaped from the sides of Archie’s blind had slipped through the windowpane and fell in soft lines across her bed spread. She reached out to touch them and the sinking feeling in her chest only fell deeper each time she tried to tap it between her fingers.

 

Just another thing to add to her list of things she couldn’t do.

 

\---

 

Jughead crept through her window minutes later, the ladder Hal had used months ago for cleaning the gutters still leaning up against her window. He pushed up the window slowly, praying that the old wood would work with him just that once and avoid waking anyone up. Betty was lying on her side, the blankets pulled in so close around her that it made her look impossibly small. One hand was outstretched, a line of hazy light falling across her palm, while the other hand was wrapped around the edge of her blanket. Her eyes were open but unfocused, fixed on her outstretched palm but not really seeing what was in front of her. 

 

He landed as quietly as he could on her window seat, slipping out of his boots and jacket before moving towards her. “Betts,” he whispered once he reached her bed. One hand reached out to touch her face as he sat down on the side of her bed, the mattress bare as all of the covers were wrapped around her. She shuffled around and sat up, leaning forward into him as he wrapped his free arm around her, his hand still on her face. 

 

“Everything’s just falling apart, Jug. I can’t … I can’t stop it. Nothing that I do is ever enough and I only seem to make things worse and I just … I can’t  _ deal  _ with it anymore. I tried to get to sleep and all I could think of was all of the horrible things that my dad has done and then … then I started thinking about you and that only made things worse because all l could imagine was how you looked when your dad carried you out of that forest and how broken you looked and how broken I felt and it just  _ wouldn’t stop.  _ Nothing will make it stop Jug and it …”

 

His hand moved from her face to the back of her neck as he held her closer, wanting to make sure she understood that he wasn’t going anywhere. His lips pressed against her crown forehead once, twice, three times. He leant down so his mouth was beside her ear, ghosting against the shell as his thumb drew slow circles on the back of her neck.

 

“You can do this, okay? I’m right here beside you, whenever you need me. Even if you need me to sneak through that window every night, I’ll be here.” Betty’s breathing started to even out, the beat of her breath against his shoulder slowing down until it matched his. He could feel the tears on her cheeks as she turned her head, bringing them face to face as their noses brushed together. 

 

She closed her eyes and leant forward slightly, her lips grazing his for a breath before she pushed forward and kissed him. This kiss wasn’t like the others; it wasn’t soft and quiet or teasing and playful. It wasn’t loving and intense or a brush of lips containing a whisper of promises. 

 

This kiss was everything, all consuming as she drank him in, trying to pull from his strength. Her hands ran through his hair, up his arms, down his back, searching for anything tangible she could store up for later when she really needed him. Filing him away in her memories for when she knew he wouldn’t be able to be right beside her. 

 

Her legs untangled themselves from the duvet as they wrapped around his waist, pulling herself closer as she breathed him in, the first clear breath she’d taken all day. Her hands settled at the hem of his shirt, fiddling with the edges as she kept her lips pressed firmly against his. The tips of her fingers skimmed the skin around his waist, running gently over the marks she was desperately trying to forget. Her hands started creeping higher higher up his stomach, only stopping when they got to his ribs with his shirt bunched up around her wrists, exposing the scars and stitches the Ghoulies had left behind. A permanent reminder of the sacrifice he had made to protect his family. 

 

She pulled away from him, breaking the connection between their lips as she moved down his body and placed them back on the scar under his ribcage. It was still slightly red and Betty placed the sweetest of kisses against it, holding for a beat longer than normal but it felt wrong to pull away so soon. She moved onto the scar next to it and Jughead inhaled sharply at the contact but made no move to pull here away. 

 

This one was longer, stretching halfway down his stomach. She placed kiss after kiss along it, refusing to lift her lips off his skin for more than a second. Tears started clouding her vision once more, threatening to fall. Betty had lost count of how many times that had happened even just in the one evening. She blinked aggressively, wishing the tears would disappear along with all the thoughts that had brought them along. They started rolling down her cheeks and dripping from her chin onto his skin, magnifying the redness of the scar and reminding her of all the blood that had painted him mere days ago.

 

Her lips kept moving across his stomach, refusing to give up because of some stupid flashback to the night she was trying so desperately to forget. Jughead’s hand slipped out of her hair as soon as he realised what was going on, dipping to rest on her chin and tilt it slightly so he could see her.

 

There was no stopping the tears anymore as they cascaded down her cheeks. “Betts, come here.” His voice was soft as he pulled her up towards him, helping her move up towards the head of the bed. He lay his head on her pillow and wrapped his arms around her again, not bothering to pull his shirt back down as he held her against him and placed sporadic kisses against whatever skin was available to him.

 

She fell asleep a while later, one hand curled into her chest and the other draped over him, not letting him move even an inch away from her. Her breath danced across the fabric covering his chest, shifting the fabric slightly each time she exhaled. He held her slightly closer than before, whispering promises into the dark room in the hope that letting them leave his lips would mean they might come true. 

 

He wished for safety, for both of them. A world in which they would never encounter monsters such as the Black Hood or Penny Peabody ever again and his heart wouldn’t clench with anxiety each time she didn’t pick up or she fell asleep before she texted him goodnight. 

 

He wished for moments such as these. Moments where it was just him and her and them, together, without any distractions or interruptions. Moments where they could just  _ be _ . 

 

But most of all, he wished for her. He wished that her nightmares would disappear and make room for dreams of a much nicer kind that would wake her up with a smile and not a scream. He wished for a day when the scars on her palms were no longer a constant reminder of the pain she had endured but rather the challenges she had overcome. 

 

He wished for her. Only her. Always her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope that you enjoyed this. It's a bit different to what I normally go for but I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately so maybe I just like experimenting. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think :)


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